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spoils system
(Encyclopedia)spoils system, in U.S. history, the practice of giving appointive offices to loyal members of the party in power. The name supposedly derived from a speech by Senator William Learned Marcy in which he...steering system
(Encyclopedia)steering system, in automobiles, steering wheel, gears, linkages, and other components used to control the direction of a vehicle's motion. Because of friction between the front tires and the road, es...urinary system
(Encyclopedia)CE5 Urinary system urinary system, group of organs of the body concerned with excretion of urine, that is, water and the waste products of metabolism. In humans, the kidneys are two small organs s...solar system
(Encyclopedia)CE5 Solar system CE5 solar system, the sun and the surrounding planets, natural satellites, dwarf planets, asteroids, meteoroids, and comets that are bound by its gravity. The sun is by far the ...seignorial system
(Encyclopedia)seignorial system: see manorial system; feudalism. ...planetary system
(Encyclopedia)planetary system, a star and all the celestial bodies bound to it by gravity, especially planets and their natural satellites. Until the last decade of the 20th cent., the only planetary system known ...banner system
(Encyclopedia)banner system, Manchu conscription system. Companies of Manchu warriors were grouped (1601) into brigades, each with a distinctive banner. The banner system integrated former tribal units into a burea...cgs system
(Encyclopedia)cgs system, system of units of measurement based on the metric system and having the centimeter of length, the gram of mass, and the second of time as its fundamental units. Other cgs units are the dy...cardiovascular system
(Encyclopedia)cardiovascular system: see circulatory system. ...Ptolemaic system
(Encyclopedia)Ptolemaic system tŏlˌəmāˈĭk [key], historically the most influential of the geocentric cosmological theories, i.e., theories that placed the earth motionless at the center of the universe with a...Browse by Subject
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